The English Chapel History

To many friends and visitors who have discovered English Chapel United Methodist Church nestled here among the mountains in the Davidson River Valley, this is the church which will come to memory at those words of Dr. Wm. Pitts' familiar old hymn. Located within a stone's throw of Highway 276 it is, nevertheless, so well hidden among the lush vegetation that thousands of tourists rush by on their way to Looking Glass Falls, Sliding Rock, the Cradle of Foresty or the Blue Ridge Parkway, without ever realizing the little church is there. Perhaps it is just as well, for this, the only enclave of the organized church within the bounds of the National Forest, is by contrast to the hustle and bustle around it, a place of quiet meditation.

The church was founded in 1860 by the Rev. A.F. English and it was theun, as it is today, served by circuit riders. The only difference is the mode of transportation; an automobile has replaced the dapple-gray. Rev. English was a Methodist circuit rider for the western counties of the state before the Civil War. When his circuit riding days were over, he settled here in Transylvania County with his wife who was from the French Broad valley.

The land for the church cost all of $5.00 and was purchased from his father-in-law Strawbridge Young, on of the early settlers in this area. It was stated in the deed that the church could be used by any Protestant worshipers, that if and when it ceased to be used as a place of worship, it would revert to the English family. Rev. English donated the lumber of the structure which was sawed at his mill out on Avery's Creek. All of the neighbors "pitched in" and the little church was built.

Back in the early days, The English Chapel was used one Sunday a month by Methodist and on the other Sundays by various denominations. The church also served as a school house and as a public meeting place. 

The late Avery Neil, a life-long member of English Chapel, who died in 1980, would often reminisce, "I was born and lived about two miles from the church. There were five of us kids who went to school there. There were a lot of kids who went there, and there must have been forty or fifty families living on the David River before the national forest took over. Some kids walked five to seven miles to attend school in the little wooden church. 

"By 1939-1940, the old wooden building has all by fallen down," Uncle Avery continued, and that's when the congregation built this rock church. It's rock out of the Davidson River, and we've got rock from Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina and Florida that visitors brought to put in our chapel. He liked to tell how much "elbow grease" it took to build the church and especially to spell out the words "English Chapel' above the front entrance.

The church is open year-roud for worship and services  begin at 9:30am. Campers and fishermen, hikers and bikers are called to worship on a Sunday morning from the highways and the byways by the "clear ringing bell". Since time out of mind, the little church in the wildwood has served thw folks of the valley and the visitors to the valley. To some, like Avery Neil, who began attending English Chapel back in 1889, while carried in his mother's arms, the last verse of the hymn is the story of a lifetime.

From the church in the valley by the wildwood, 

When day fades away into night, 

I would fain from this spot of my childhood, 

Wing my way to the mansions of light